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“Ella, get in the car.”
“You want me to make a scene in front of a police station?”
“Do you think I’m remotely worried by that?” he snaps. “You’re mywife, Ella.”
There it is again.
I purse my lips.
“I don’t think ‘under duress’ comes at the end of ‘to have and to hold.’”
He sighs with bored exasperation as I start to turn away.
“Ella, get in the fucking—”
“You killed my mother!” I whirl on him, savagely, rage singing over my skin. “If you think I’m so much as speaking to you again, you’re fucking delusional!”
Noel’s face darkens, his eyes narrowing to deadly golden sparks.
“When two people close to you die in the same violent way,” he rasps, the heaviness of his voice making me stiffen.
“You look into it. You put them both under a microscope, because life might be cruel, and hard, and random. But it’s never that coincidental.”
He’s talking about Matilde and my mum.
“You’re right,” I hiss icily. “It’s not a coincidence at all. They hadyouin common—”
“They hadPrincein common,” he snaps back. “Ella, I am fully aware that he’s been whispering into your ear that I’m responsible for what happened. But if you’re looking for things your mother and Matilde Laurent had in common, it isn’t justme. It’shim, as well.”
My heart thuds, my eyes narrowing at him as my throat tightens.
“I know he loved Cassandra,” Noel growls quietly. “As I know the hatred I saw in his eyes the day she and I formalized our arrangement.”
I laugh coldly.
“Yourarrangement? Do you mean your hostile fucking takeover!?”
He rolls his eyes.
“I amnotthe monster under your fucking bed, Ella—”
“No! You’re the one who’s beenin it!” I scream, tears starting to drip down my face.
His hardens.
“Both your mother and Matilde died in fires that were accelerated—intentionally and maliciously—with a cleaning agent; specifically, the exact proprietary chemical makeup of CleanWipe brand.”
“Stop it.”
“After I was so immediately pointed to as a suspect—”
“Please stop it.”
“I had my own people start digging into the one other vector that connected Matilde and Cassandra.”
“Goddamnit, stop—”
“They foundcasesof CleanWipe brand in his home—”
